[www.crawleycarpetc]

Rcs if you click on this link there ins the 7 step sales process
Phil
http://www.businessballs.com/salestraining.htm#sevenstepsofthesale

Interesting Phil, i have saved that for a quiet moment!

Rob.

[Tim Downer]

My sales approach would be my list of happy and delighted clients......

      ........that would make the prospective client happy to spend proper money on my services   

Tim

[www.crawleycarpetc]

My sales approach would be my list of happy and delighted clients......

      ........that would make the prospective client happy to spend proper money on my services   

Tim

How do you define proper money Tim? ( for a 50 hour contract!)

[Mr BSF]

I would rather make a profit that none at all, because I wont get the 50 hr contract by quoting £11 per hour, even if I did, I wouldnt have it for very long, what is the point.

Volume thats what this game is all about , If a big contract is taken on and you have the right staff, it will take very little of your time to manage, it will run itself.

[Mr BSF]

My sales approach would be my list of happy and delighted clients......

      ........that would make the prospective client happy to spend proper money on my services   

Tim

That's easily said Tim, but it does help if you can show that list of delighted clients, it takes a very long time to get names on that list.

Its hard to initially get that blue chip client to trust a small company.

regards

BSF

[Mr BSF]

Hi Phil, the sales thing is interesting, unfortunately it doesn’t always work in the contract cleaning game, I offer a good service for a fair price, the sales patter might get the contract initially, but it wont keep it.

How many times have you bought something off a salesmen with the gift of the gab, then when you’ve parted with the money got home to think about it then regretted it, you see in the service industry, it might win you the job, but wont help you keep it.

I win a job to keep it long term, I make sure the price is a fair one, so when the inevitable happens 9/12 months down the line and the new company in town send a fantastic salesperson to offer a better service with a big saving, they cant because any saving my customer can make, isn’t really worth the risk of transfer, but when its a £150 a week saving, believe me they will bin you.

Regards

BSF

[Prestige1]

I agree with a lot in what you say and frustartes the hell out of me, I have a receptionist who answears the phone, the first point of contact is so proffesional she's great, she then arranges a visit from me, and with out blowing my own trumpit to much I really set the scene, we have a high sucess rate when I get chance to visit, and a good price, don't promiss the earth either, but unfortunatly the cleaners let me down most of the time, If I could only find could hard working cleaners I would be laughing all the way to the bank. I have gone through over 100 in 3 years, start of great so I know they can do it, but it falls away after 3 months or so, and I am sure you know the feeling. but hey ho we press on. when you say make the price a fair one I truly think £11 is fair
regards Phil

[www.crawleycarpetc]

I agree with a lot in what you say and frustartes the hell out of me, I have a receptionist who answears the phone, the first point of contact is so proffesional she's great, she then arranges a visit from me, and with out blowing my own trumpit to much I really set the scene, we have a high sucess rate when I get chance to visit, and a good price, don't promiss the earth either, but unfortunatly the cleaners let me down most of the time, If I could only find could hard working cleaners I would be laughing all the way to the bank. I have gone through over 100 in 3 years, start of great so I know they can do it, but it falls away after 3 months or so, and I am sure you know the feeling. but hey ho we press on. when you say make the price a fair one I truly think £11 is fair
regards Phil

Phil

Maybe your team atmosphere is a problem? You say after three months things start to slide, maybe motivation is the problem?

Rob.

[Art]

, but unfortunatly the cleaners let me down most of the time, If I could only find could hard working cleaners I would be laughing all the way to the bank. I have gone through over 100 in 3 years, start of great so I know they can do it, but it falls away after 3 months or so, and I am sure you know the feeling. but hey ho we press on. when you say make the price a fair one I truly think £11 is fair
regards Phil

Hi Phil,

 That's a big problem throughout the industry.

I've thought recently that offering some sort of performance bonus payable 6 monthly might work.
What's everyones elses thoughts on this ?

Arthur

[www.crawleycarpetc]

, but unfortunatly the cleaners let me down most of the time, If I could only find could hard working cleaners I would be laughing all the way to the bank. I have gone through over 100 in 3 years, start of great so I know they can do it, but it falls away after 3 months or so, and I am sure you know the feeling. but hey ho we press on. when you say make the price a fair one I truly think £11 is fair
regards Phil

Hi Phil,

 That's a big problem throughout the industry.

I've thought recently that offering some sort of performance bonus payable 6 monthly might work.
What's everyones else thought on this ?

Arthur

I think social evenings are a good way of motivating staff, it picks them all up not just a particular member and gives them something to look forward to as a group. You can always reward really good staff with bonuses etc.

Rob.

[Mike Jones]

Re Priceing,

I think a lot depends on the geographical area you cover.

 IMO the larger the business the less they want to pay for cleaning and the less they care about the quality of the service provided.

Most of my clieints are domestic and small businesses, I charge between £10 and £13 per hour but there is NO WAY I would gain larger contracts at these rates.

I find my staff prefer working the smaller contracts and domestics even though thier hourly pay rate is the same.

[Prestige1]

RCS
No its not motivation, I come from a back ground of modern management techniques also have a CIM and nvq levlel 5 in management. tried team building events it just goes right over there heads I would probably get more out of them if I went to pub and got ped but thats not my idea of team building, its the industry, you do find good ones, but seams to me the more you do for them the more they want, Ihave 2 girls in citreon belingos not vans car/van. they wouldnt know a good thing if it jumped up and bit them in the face, pay them £7 per hour and they would still leave, sad but I just think their thick, loads have come back for a job but I won't entertain them, I am sure you all will come across it the bigger you get, regards Phil

[Robert Parry]

Question -
Why do most people work?

Answer -
To earn money, to buy the things they need/want or desire.

We, as an example, offer all staff a min of £6:00 per hour, full training in cleaning/ H & S/COSSH.
We give all client's a "Real Quality Management System",  where they decide how good or bad the cleaning is, we have no input into this scoring process, each member of staff is informed that we have no way of altering this quality score.

Then we say to our staff, if you score 3 or above, which equates to "cleaning is of a very good standard" they will be paid a "Quality" bonus, we do the same for attendance.

The above works very well for us in motivating our staff, assuming we have chosen the right person for that particular job. After all they need the job dont they?

I also make sure, that I, myself visit each and every site monthly, to talk and have a laugh with each member of staff, this is actually getting harder, but I think that it shows each staff member that they are important and are valued as such. And I always make a point of getting my hands dirty on site, to show them, that I can do, what I ask them to do, this again breaks down barriers, so there is no "them & us" within the company.

Everyone, is made to feel respected and important, hardly ever have problems with poor work, bad attitiude or attendance, we are all on the same side and we are all friends, what other motivation do you need?

Regards,

Rob

PS
At the first interview stage, we ask a series of detailed questions in order to get some idea of their attitude to the cleaning industry, their answers will decide if we invite them to a second, more detailed interview.

[D woods]

The post above went of prematurely before it was spellchecked  or finished
so I will start again

When I was involved in daily office cleaning I found it impossible to motivate
part time staff. The only people you can attract are the ones that cant get
a job anywhere else (in central London this means immigrants that can speak
very little if any English)

This was the main reason I gave up with daily office cleaning. I would be very interested how other contractors motivate there part time staff.

[a55essor]

Hi
This is what I call a discussion it covers all topics, I find it very helpful. Well done Colin for starting it off.even though you started off with fire in your breath 

[Robert Parry]

D. Woods, in my experience immigrants, as long as they are here legally, have much to offer.
Just the other day took a chap on from Nigeria, although he has been in this country for 12 yrs! He applied for a part time position, best candidate by far, but we could'nt take him on, because his present employer would not give us a reference, his employer by the way is an Internationlal Cleaning Firm! We recieved another reference for him a couple of day's later from a different company, phoned him up and promised him the next vacancy available, pleased as punch he was.

Two weeks later, needed a full time cleaner, lots of driving and night work, so gave him a call, he accepted, and we have not looked back since, works all the hours I can throw at him, client's love him and his standard of work is very, very good, already sending him to college (english lessons), has a bright future with us if he carries on like he has been.

In my experience, it pay's to be selective When it comes to hiring staff, bit of a pain at times, especially when your busy, I know, but bottom line it is worth it.

Regards,

Rob

[Prestige1]

It would be nice to be able to be selective, every sesion of inyerviews I ever hold only half turn up, I think it all depends where you live and opperate, very very low employment in my area and like what was said above the only people I atract are dead heads the type that if they came out of work the goverment would make their money up to allmost the same as if they where working. regards Phil

[Mr BSF]

Mr Jones has been very honest with his last post on this thread, £10-13 ph for big contracts doesnt happen (not in my/his world anyway), as ive pointed out even if this rate was possible, you wouldnt have the contract for long.

Its all down to staff motivation (hard work at first), getting rid of the bad apples (very easy),  then putting in your existing trusted staff from other sites, get the job settled, sit back and go on to the next project.

But what is the point in doing all this hard work, when if your rates are over the top, mr competitor will steal your job after 12 months, because he is sensible enough to lower his profit margin to keep it long term, I would much rather make £xx a week long term, than £xxx a week for only one year.

Regards

BSF

[Mike Jones]

Mr Jones has been very honest with his last post on this thread, £10-13 ph for big contracts doesnt happen (not in my/his world anyway), as ive pointed out even if this rate was possible, you wouldnt have the contract for long.

Its all down to staff motivation (hard work at first), getting rid of the bad apples (very easy),  then putting in your existing trusted staff from other sites, get the job settled, sit back and go on to the next project.

But what is the point in doing all this hard work, when if your rates are over the top, mr competitor will steal your job after 12 months, because he is sensible enough to lower his profit margin to keep it long term, I would much rather make £xx a week long term, than £xxx a week for only one year.

Regards

BSF
 On some things we agree

[Mr BSF]

what do you mean.. some things?

I'd say most things Mike,,, well.... apart from the pic